Dr Peter Hopwood
HOPWOOD, Peter BE(Hons) PhD FIEAust CPEng FAICD (1946–2021)
Peter completed his BE and PhD studies at the University of Western Australia in 1971, followed by five years in the UK and USA working in the nuclear power industry. Back in Australia Peter worked for Woodside and then Santos between 1976 and 1986, during which time he managed construction of production modules for North Rankin A at Henderson, and significant projects in the Cooper Basin in South Australia.
After two years in commercial R&D in the marine industry, which was cut short by the stock market crash of 1987, Peter returned to project management, this time in the mining sector. He was the senior project manager for the Tiwest Joint Venture, which in the years 1988-1992 built a mineral sands mine, two processing plants at Muchea and a TiO2 pigment plant at Kwinana. He then managed the WA and (subsequently) the international operations of CMPS&F before forming his own firm, HBH Consultants, in 1993. HBH completed many studies and projects in the mineral sands, nickel and alumina industries before merging with Sinclair Knight Merz in 2006. While at SKM Peter managed its WA Mining and Metals team, which was at that time undertaking major mine, rail and port developments in the Pilbara for both BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto.
Peter was a non executive member of the Board of the Water Corporation (1996-2003) and Chair of the Centre for Application of Solar Energy (CASE), a joint Australia UNIDO initiative (1994-2001). He served as President of the WA Division of Engineers Australia (2000), Chair of the Mechanical College Board (2002-03) and as a member of the Accreditation Committee of EA (2003-06). He was also a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors (1994-2017).
In 2017 and 2018 Peter was part of a team that researched and wrote a nomination document for the North West Shelf Gas Project, which was then awarded an EHA Engineering Heritage International Marker (EHIM).
Peter joined Engineering Heritage Western Australia in July 2017 and in January 2019 became Chair of the Committee. He was actively involved in preparing material for the Engineers Australia Centenary books and along with Mike Taylor developed proposals for documenting the history of Western Australia's engineering achievements, the result of which was this website which was first launched in December 2019. More detail on the initial website development is available here.
Peter became ill in 2020 and retired from the Committee in November 2020. He died on 1 November 2021.
References:
A curriculum vitae provided by Peter Hopwood is available here.
West Australian, Obituary, 15 November 2021.
Water Corporation On Tap, Peter Hopwood.
Publications:
The Role of Renewable Energy in WA's Economic Future
Two-phase flow in submarine pipelines, Diamond Jubilee Conference 1979.
(ABSTRACT: The flow at high pressure of natural gas and associated liquids in a large diameter pipeline represents a most important application of the fluid mechanics of two-phase flow. The scale of such pipelines puts them beyond the realms of laboratory investigation, leaving the relevance of laboratory experiments in doubt. Nevertheless the recent literature of horizontal two-phase flow provides valuable insights into the probable performance of "wet" gas pipelines, such as those planned for the North West Shelf Development Project off the coast of Western Australia.)
